Build a prison and it’ll be filled

Published 4:04 pm, Sunday, January 11, 2015

Objections to a 2,400-bed detention center for immigrant families in Dilley deserve attention.

Catholic Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio and others have raised noteworthy concerns. No matter how comfortable the setting is made to be — and we won’t know that full story until after its opening — it will still be a prison.

The facility is designed to hold Central American families who, according to U.S. laws, should be treated more as refugees — and potential winners of what is tantamount to asylum. This should happen if they make “credible-fear” claims — that they will be harmed if they return. They should be given more leeway for bond, release on recognizance or other conditions. That isn’t happening.

If this country’s history with prisons — whether housing immigrants or felons — proves anything, it’s that, if it’s built, it will be filled.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Jeh Johnson, in a recent visit to the area, made it quite clear that credible-fear claims won’t matter much for recent arrivals.

“Those who came here illegally in the past, have been here for years, have committed no serious crimes and have become integrated members of American life are not priorities for removal,” Johnson said. “But all those who came here illegally after Jan. 1, 2014 . are now priorities for removal to their home countries.”

So, let’s examine those home countries, conditions there and why these people left. Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala post some of the highest murder rates in the world and are beset both by gangs and conditions approaching dysfunctional law enforcement and government.

Mothers are bringing their children because these gangs, when they are not brutalizing everyone within reach, are forcibly recruiting their sons.

The United States is normalizing relations with Cuba, a country whose residents get preferential treatment on immigration. This essentially amounts to: Get here and you’re in. The argument is that Cubans deserve this because of the level of political repression and lack of certain freedoms. Meanwhile, Central Americans fleeing much more violent environments are seen as just potential deportees.

We understand the United States cannot take in everyone. It can, however, follow its own laws and actively consider legitimate claims to stay. What the opening of the 2,400-bed Dilley detention center indicates is that this doesn’t appear to be happening.